PulseDeleting and restoring notes
What happens when you delete a note, restoring from the bin, and how long before permanent deletion.
Notes you created by mistake, or no longer need, can be deleted. A deleted note goes to the bin first, so if you delete something by accident you can put it back within a certain period. This article covers how to delete, how to restore from the bin, how long before something is permanently deleted, and what happens to the data afterwards.
Deleting a note permanently also loses that meeting's transcript. If you want to keep the note but remove old transcripts, set a retention period under Automatic transcript deletion.
Moving a note to the bin
- In the notes list, hover over the note you want to delete.
- Click the three-dot menu (…) that appears at the right of the row.
- Choose “Move to bin”.
The menu that appears at the far right when you hover over a note row, with the “Move to bin” item in it.
Restoring from the bin, or deleting permanently
The bin icon appears at the very bottom of the left sidebar as soon as you move even one note to it. If you have a lot of folders, you may have to scroll the sidebar down to see it.
Open the bin and each note shows two actions.
- Back arrow: restores the note to where it was.
- Bin button: deletes that note permanently.
The bin icon at the bottom of the sidebar and the list of notes in the opened bin, each row showing the restore and permanent delete actions.
There is no way to restore a note through the app once you have deleted it permanently. The meeting's transcript and summary are lost together, so always check you have the right one before you go ahead. If the note was shared, it also disappears for the people you shared it with.
A note left in the bin for 30 days is deleted permanently and automatically. If you think you may need a note back, take it out of the bin before those 30 days are up.
What remains after deletion
Once you delete permanently, the note and its transcript disappear from the app and drop out of search. Data does, however, remain for a period in backups kept for disaster recovery and in the audit log that records operations. What the audit log keeps is a record of who did what and when; it does not include the body of notes or transcripts. If you need to explain how deletion works for a vendor assessment or an audit, include this point in your answer.
How we think about retention, and a list of what remains after deletion, are covered in Automatic transcript deletion.
How long it takes for data to disappear from backups and audit logs after permanent deletion depends on UNCHAIN, Inc.'s actual systems. If you state a specific number of days here, keep it consistent with the figures in Automatic transcript deletion.
Deletion and the Act on the Protection of Personal Information
Deleting also bears on what the Act on the Protection of Personal Information requires of businesses. A transcript or summary note produced from meeting audio may constitute “personal information” under that Act where it is linked to attendees' names and similar details.
It provides that where there is no longer a need to use personal data, a business must endeavour to erase that personal data without delay. With this duty of effort in mind, UNCHAIN, Inc. provides mechanisms such as automatic deletion from the bin and a configurable transcript retention period.
How requests from the individual to stop use or erase data are handled (Article 35 of the same Act) is explained, together with the text of the provision, in Automatic transcript deletion. If you would rather clear out transcripts past a certain age in bulk than delete meeting by meeting, set a retention period using the steps in that article. The retention period can be one day, one week, one month, three months, six months or one year; by default no automatic deletion takes place (off). If your internal rules set a retention period for meeting minutes, matching that period keeps practice consistent.
When you cannot find the bin
The bin is operated from the desktop app (macOS / Windows).
- The bin icon is nowhere to be seen: the icon does not appear while the bin is empty. Either you have not deleted anything yet, or everything has already been permanently deleted.
- I cannot find it in the sidebar: with a lot of folders, the bin is pushed below the folder list. Scroll the sidebar all the way down.
- It does not appear in the web version: the web version you open in a browser is for viewing and editing notes that already exist. Restore and permanent deletion are done from the desktop app.
If something is not working
- A note I do not remember deleting has gone: the cause may be syncing or a filtered view rather than deletion. Check Missing notes.
- A note I restored from the bin is not in its original folder: it is restored to where it was before deletion. If you have since changed your folder structure, it can be hard to find. Check the structure under Spaces and folders.
- I want to delete a note shared with my team: what you are able to delete depends on your permissions within the workspace. See Workspaces.